What Would Jesus Say...To Me

I have been tagged by Shalene with this meme.

What would Jesus say to me?

"Quit your struggling and let me lead for a while - its really much easier that way."

I tag Lance and Bro. Tee.

Worry

The Bible says "Do not worry" and "Do not be anxious about anything" and "Cast all your cares on him", yet we worry.

Don't we believe that God is able to meet our every need? That in all things God works for the good of those who love him? That in all things we are more than conquerors?

Don't we trust God with our lives?

Obviously not.

Is it because of our unbelief? Is it because we know that God's idea of what's good for us does not necessarily include our comfort, and will most likely involve growing pain?

We like to be in control - its feels much less risky that way - so we give God a little part of our lives, the "big" problems, and worry about the rest ourselves.

Numpties, the lot of us!

Sausages

I have had this very strange urge for the past few weeks to write a blog entry entitled Sausages, but I have no idea why.

I like sausages, which is a good thing here in the England because a good steak is hard to come buy at a rate I can afford. But that's not exactly a deep Christian truth is it?

Perhaps we are like sausages, plastic facade on the outside but very yummy on the inside once we've been through fire?

Nope, its not coming to me. This is a purely random thought, but just in case you are a sausage lover in search of an interesting post on sausages...

Confession

I have a confession to make: I love Monty Python. Its funny, wacky, un-PC and very irreverant - all the things good humour should be.

So when I found this on Reson8rs it made me very happy indeed.

My dilemma as a Christian is this: my favourite Monty Python film is the "Life of Brian", which as you may know pokes fun at the society around the time of Jesus. It is very near the mark but misses it superbly in my humble opinion.

One of my favourite bits is the stammering (stuttering) jail warden (played by Michael Palin). He used to stammer, I still do stammer, and I guess we should be horribly offended by the mickey-take of our unpleasant affliction, but it is sooooo funny. And that's the point I guess - humour enables us to laugh at adversity and so by definition needs to address difficult, sensitive and possibly offense-inducing subjects.

I don't get it

I have not been blogging for long so perhaps I've missed the fundamental point but here goes...

I sometimes receive requests to exchange links or add others as friends or favourites on some blogging community. The idea seems to be to generate traffic and I guess for many ... some income via their blogs.

I don't blog for income, so my links to other websites are ones that I actually visit, and my friends are actually bloggers I like the look of or have something in common with. Surely if one exchanges links and friendship willy-nilly does this not lower the real value of those links and friendship?

I don't get it.

The Mandate

I have just spent a long weekend in Belfast with a bunch of blokes. No, it wasn't a drinking weekend, though they do some fine Guiness and Irish Stew up in Northern Ireland!. ;-) It was a Christian men's conference called The Mandate and the "blokes" were 40 or so men from my church.

It was superb. Robin Mark leading 4000+ men in worship is enough to blow anyone away and I certainly was. And that's before the excellent teaching had even started!

What follows is a list of random things that really struck me - my spiritual "take aways" if you like. You might want to beat your chest in a manly manner whilst reading them! ;-)

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Don't let life waft over you like a series of uncontrolled events. Choosing is an extraordinary spiritual activity. Your choices, not your circumstances, define your life. Engage (with Christ, Family, Church and Work)! Take the initiative and believe that God will meet your challenges. What we do in life echoes in eternity. Be passionate about life!

Learn to live in uncertainty and risk. The greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The statement "the safest place is in the centre of the will of God" is false - Jesus' disciples are not safe in the wordly sense of the word.

Measure your life by what you do, not by what you don't do (i.e. sin).

Two voices cry for your attention: the Crowd and the Cross - which will you listen to?

God is the source of all beauty. We have become used to pig swill. Jesus has come to give us life. Be alive! Be extraordinary! God makes our tragedy beautiful in its time. Are you too afraid of the tragedy to experience the beauty? Trust your life to Jesus and He will make everything beautiful in its time.

Don't live in the misty lowlands of mediocrity - fly like an eagle.

Your life should be like that of a child on a flight of stairs leaping into thin air into the arms of his father.

Who's life are you going to touch this week?

Man needs: a cause to die for, a challenge to embrace, loved ones to protect. Be a soldier of the cross, a man after God's own heart. Our battle cry should be like that of the gladiators of old: "Strengh and Honour!"

A man after God's own heart:

• lives his life for an audience of One (we're under new management, ouposts in alien territory, citizens in a different kingdom)
  
• acts on his beliefs
  
• is obedient
  
• prepares for conflict
  
• studies the Word
  
• guards his heart, not just his behaviour
  
• lays his life on the line - engage in the journey and let God set the destination.
  
• makes a stand
  
• serves and protects his loves ones - try outserving your wife for a month for NO expected return
  
• focuses on what's important
  
• leans into his fears. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the absence of self.
  
• finishes well
  

The antartic explorer Ernest Shackleton is alleged to have posted the following ad in the newspaper:

"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success."

Faith like a child

I was over at Sailing By Starlight this morning and saw a wonderful post on Childhood.

I've copied two of the quotes here:

Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows. ~John Betjeman, Summoned by Bells

I'd give all wealth that years have piled, The slow result of Life's decay, To be once more a little child For one bright summer day. ~Lewis Carroll, "Solitude"

Jesus has much to say on this too.

I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. (Matthew 11:25)

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)

Sailing By Starlight's post really spoke to me. My constant doubt and questioning are indeed part of my "dark hour of reason", and I long to have Faith like a child, if only for one "bright summer's day."

Moral Breakdown

In the news this morning, "Conservative leader David Cameron is expected to call for the law to be tightened to ensure that more men charged with rape are convicted." and is quoted to have said "To my mind, this is an example of moral collapse."

I don't understand how a secular society can speak about morality in this way, for the simple reason that secular society defines its own morality. When you ditch religion the way the UK has you can't complain that morality is declining because you have ditched the absolute moral framework required to do any comparisons at all.

A secular society's morality just is. Its neither good nor bad, just a reflection of what the majority believes.

Cameron is by implication appealing to a higher law, a law that is outside the opinion of society, a law that can only exist outside of time and space, in the hands of an absolute Law Giver.